Two Afrocentric organizations have teamed up to provide online access to African Nova Scotia education beyond March 1.
"These are really fascinating individuals," says Lindsay Ruck, of the Delmore "Buddy" Learning Institute, as she looks up at the men and women featured prominently on banners that hang in the main foyer of the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia (BCC).
Ruck and Rielle Williams of BCC are video recording the stories of Nova Scotia's Black trailblazers that will be accessible online as early as next week.
"To create something people can sit in their own homes," Ruck says. "With a click of a button, see all these different images and sculptures right on their screen."
Ruck, an author and editor, points out how Black history is every Canadian's history, citing Viola Desmond's refusal to move from an all-white section of a New Glasgow, N.S., movie theatre in 1946, as a perfect example.
"That had an impact on everyone. Because it changed policies and procedures going forward," says Ruck.
"The history of African Nova Scotians is ever evolving," agrees Russell Grosse, who knows firsthand.
After 28 years at the Black Cultural Centre, its executive director still finds himself surprised by new discoveries, sometimes on a personal level.
A First World War researcher recently contacted Grosse, interested in the No. 2 Construction Battalion and the war efforts of Black women on the home front.
"And one of the names they came up with was a lady by the name of Mary Grosse," says Grosse with an amazed smile on his face. "And come to find out through the records, it's my great-grandmother."
His colleague at BCC, Rielle Williams, refers to another recent discovery, lost audio tapes recorded in the 1980s.
The tapes document the experiences and hardships of Black elders in their own words.
"What we were doing and what people were doing in a very discriminatory, a very racist place at the time, just to survive," says Williams.
It is easy to see Williams' enthusiasm as she describes the women and men they're honouring in the upcoming educational videos.
"I just absolutely love to immerse myself in that and also giving it to the rest of the community and our greater community as well," she said.
"Listening is very important," says Ruck. "Making space to hear these stories is important. But what you do with those stories is even more important."
Ruck hopes Maritimers of all backgrounds will ask themselves this: "I've now heard about the racism and discrimination happening in my own community, what am I going to do going forward to change that?"
